Christmas in New Guinea in the light of tribal simplicity

New Guinea houses a number of tribes and this result in a lot of tribal in-fighting. So, Christmas in New Guinea is basically an opportunity to usher in peace in the atmosphere of festivity and celebrations. The chiefs of each tribe of the region come together on this occasion and exchange an infant son between themselves. This infant is called the Peace Child. This traditional ritual is of great significance as the onus lies on each tribe to ensure the security and care of the adopted child. If the child happens to die, the treaty of peace stands annulled and this would mean the restoration of tribal strife once again. According to legends, a Canadian missionary and his wife had related to the indigenous people of the area, the Sawi on how God had sent his beloved son as the Peace Child to save the world.This inspired the Sawi and they tried to evolve as devout Christians by giving up their treacherous ways of life and tried to ensure peace amongst themselves.

Christmas in New Guinea is not marked by the usual glitterati that are observed in other parts of the world, but the fervor of the occasion is very much present. There are no exchanges of Christmas cards or Christmas gifts and there is no Christmas banking either. There are no endless parties with lavish drinks during Christmas and the feasts are not held during the day. The occasion is usually marked by the customary Mumu. It is a traditional method of cooking for the feasts. The meat is a combination of anything from chicken to beef, pork or mutton and cooked with sweet potatoes, cooking bananas along with a wide assortment of greens and vegetables. They are all put together and cooked in a ground oven.

A lot of effort is put on decorations of the church during the Christmas in New Guinea. The locals get together right from the morning of the Christmas Eve and start the decorations with an innumerable variety of greenery. They put a lot of branches from the back to front of the church and place one big tree at the entrance of the church. The tree is laden with lots of candles on its branches and the whole interior of the church is decorated with bamboo candle holders with candles. The ceilings of the church have flowers and leaves hanging from them and all these impart a gorgeous old world charm to the ambience of the church.

There are also dramatic presentations of the birth of Jesus where the tribal performers do a lot of stunts. For instance, an angel makes his appearance through a breath of fire when the respective person blows onto a lighted match with a mouthful of kerosene!

Following the Christmas celebrations, all the greenery used for decorations are removed and collected to light the bonfire to usher in the New Years’ Eve after a few days. It is a rather thoughtful and simple celebration that characterizes Christmas in New Guinea.